It’s no secret that change is occurring at breakneck speeds. But knowing this seems to make little difference. Many companies are, in essence, standing still while the most innovative and flexible organizations whiz by effortlessly. Why? Organizations are wildly out of balance and people are often slotted into roles that are completely incompatible with their true capabilities.

Boston, MA – April 7, 2011 (via PressReleaseNation.com) — Is your company operating at a speed that’s keeping it ahead of the pace? Or is it simply running as fast as possible, upon the proverbial hamster wheel, gaining little traction to speed well beyond the competition? If this is the case, consider operating like a Formula 1 Pit Crew, to rev up productivity and throughput. Their tried and true principles will optimize any business and create high performing teams.

“Why is it that pit crews produce unprecedented results in just a matter of seconds? They employ three main principles that can and should be applied within your own organization to create peak levels of performance,” says Stephen Shapiro, innovation leader and author of Personality Poker. ( http://PersonalityPokerBook.com/book ) “First, each team member must be acutely aware of his specific strengths and – even more importantly – play to those strengths to maximize efficiencies. Secondly, the team must have a full complement of all styles represented to ensure that each essential role is covered. And lastly, the team should use a ‘divide and conquer’ methodology. Divvy up the work based on which style is most effective at a given task.”

Stephen Shapiro’s recent book and personality tool, Personality Poker, allows teams, within minutes, to clearly determine the individual strengths of each member. This critical awareness makes it possible to place people in the most effective roles for leveraging their talents. Additionally, this same instrument highlights aptitude deficiencies so that you can effectively bring your team into its necessary balance.

“When watching a Formula 1 Pit Crew, it’s easy to see that each person clearly knows his strengths and is placed in the role that best compliments those capabilities,” explains Shapiro in part two of his recent interview with IdeaConnection ( http://1clik2.com/PerformanceParadox ). “It’s also evident that if just one of the 20 members were absent, the outcome would be entirely thwarted. Despite the obviousness of this example, many organizations are still operating with the absence of critical skills that would ensure them the ability to cross the finish line significantly ahead their competition.”

About Stephen Shapiro:
Stephen Shapiro is one of the foremost authorities on innovation and collaboration, and has personally touched hundreds of thousands of lives in over 40 countries. While Stephen’s insights apply to virtually any organization, big or small, he has contributed to shifting the innovation culture for such Fortune 500 organization as Staples, GE, BP, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity Investments, Pearson Education, Nestlé, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. As the founder and creator of a 20,000 person internal innovation practice within Accenture, and advisor to hundreds of organizations worldwide, Stephen possesses a rare and extensive arsenal of tools allowing him to arm any organization with the knowledge they need to shift their most threatening challenges. His most recent project, Personality Poker ( http://PersonalityPokerBook.com/book ), released by Penguin Portfolio in October 2010, is a card game that has been played by over 25,000 people in boardrooms and living rooms around the world.